Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is 60.0x cheaper per token.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4.5 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMMLU), while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri May 01 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 30.0x more expensive than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 150.0x more expensive than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 4.5 is more expensive than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri May 01 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.10
Best providerAzure
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 4.5 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Phi-3.5-mini-instruct's 128,000 tokens. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.5 is limited to 64,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Fri May 01 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-mini-instruct does not.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct uses MIT.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4.5 was released on 2025-09-29, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct was released on 2024-08-23.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is 13 months newer than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Sep 29, 2025

7 months ago

1.1yr newer
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

1.7 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-01-31, while Phi-3.5-mini-instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Claude Sonnet 4.5's training data extends to 2025-01-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Phi-3.5-mini-instruct's cutoff date.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Jan 2025

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

—

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is available from Anthropic. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is available from Azure.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

azure logo
Azure
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.10/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (83.4% vs 30.4%)
Higher MMMLU score (89.1% vs 55.4%)
Microsoft
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is made by Anthropic and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 scores MMMLU: 89.1%, AIME 2025: 87.0%, TAU-bench Retail: 86.2%, GPQA: 83.4%, MMMUval: 77.8%. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct scores GSM8k: 86.2%, ARC-C: 84.6%, RULER: 84.1%, PIQA: 81.0%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%.
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is 30.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct costs $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output via azure.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K tokens and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.
Key differences include context window (200K vs 128K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.10/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is developed by Anthropic and Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is developed by Microsoft.